hammer

n.

Old English hamor "hammer," from Proto-Germanic *hamaraz (cf. Old Saxon hamur, Middle Dutch, Dutch hamer, Old High German hamar, German Hammer. The Old Norse cognate hamarr meant "stone, crag" (it's common in English place names), and suggests an original sense of "tool with a stone head," from PIE *akmen "stone, sharp stone used as a tool" (cf. Old Church Slavonic kamy, Russian kameni "stone"), from root *ak- "sharp" (see acme). Hammer and sickle as an emblem of Soviet communism attested from 1921, symbolizing industrial and agricultural labor.

hammer

v.

late 14c., from hammer (n.). Meaning "to work (something) out laboriously" recorded from 1580s. Meaning "to defeat heavily" is from 1948. Related: Hammered; hammering. Hammered as a slang synonym for "drunk" attested by 1986.

hammer

A sexually desirable woman; fox •Regarded by some women as offensive (1960s+ Black)

The accelerator of a truck (1960+ Truckers)

The penis: How's your hammer hangin', Tiger?(1960s+)

verb

To denigrate severely; dump on: You can be playing outside the pearly gates and you're still going to get hammered(1900+)

To beat down the price of a stock: Beverly's stock was being hammered by the company's persistent losses(1846+ Stock market)

The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D.Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.Cite This Source

Idioms and Phrases with hammer out

hammer out

Work out with considerable effort, as in It took weeks of negotiations to hammer out an acceptable compromise. This usage likens intellectual effort to shaping metal with the blows of a hammer.
[ Mid-1700s
]